Amazing Start!
This app will be amazingly useful to SO many people who need language skills certified. I hope to see many other language added (Hebrew please!).
The app is mostly easy to use. You register for a Duolingo account or log in with your credentials. You can familiarize yourself with a few sample questions before taking the exam and ensure that youre camera, mic, and sound are optimally set. The exam UI is simple to get through and it is easy to select/speak answers.
There are still some problems that Duolingo needs to address:
1) Id love to see a progress bar so that Ill know how much further Ill have until the exam will be completed.
2) Sadly, while I was taking my exam (and presumably almost done, judging by the amount of time that passed), a notification badge from another app popped onto my screen. This prompted my exam to stop, and now I wont be allowed to retake the test for another 24 hours. Before starting the test, you provide a wonderful checklist of what to do and not do (ie: dont wear headphones, dont look away from your phone, etc.). It may have helped to be told that notification badges should be temporarily disabled in ones device Settings (a handy link to take people there would be awesome). I know youre trying to prevent cheating and validate scores accurately, but Im not sure why I could not simply just have picked up from where I left off after closing the notification. I never technically left the app, as instructed, so Im no sure why the exam wouldnt simply pause (maybe blurring the screen so I cant stop to consider the answer and/or generating a new question), allow me to close the notification, and then Id immediately continue the exam. I am pretty upset that Ill have to wait 24 hours AND restart the whole test all because a notification badge popped-up on my screen. I also hope that it wont affect my scoring negatively in any way and/or remain on my Duolingo record, which I have no way of knowing.
Given this experience, I think you guys need to go back and think about anything that could potentially interrupt the exam from within the iPhone -- notifications, phone calls, texts -- and then either tell us how to disable them ahead, OR since it may be difficult for people to disable all of these things, just do what I said above to pause the exam momentarily so we can just shut the popup and keep going.
3) When I had to set my birthdate after photographing my drivers license, I could not seem to select my year, 1981. It kept jumping back to 1977. This seems to happen with other years too. Thus, it would be helpful to know how we can revise our information and/or contact you so that you can do so. Perhaps users could contact you right within the app and record audio/video explaining any problems or clarifications for our accounts.
4) Aside from your sample questions, how about some studying tools/tips?
5) Can you tell us your exam grading scale? What constitutes passing or failing? How many points is each question worth? Does only one person grade the exam, or is our exam graded by several people whose scores are averaged together? Will we get to see our graded exam along with comments/explanations about what we got right/wrong?
6) Id also like to know more about Duolingo, how your exam compares with others, whether your exam is certified and will be accepted anywhere, how you suggest that people prepare for taking your exam, whether we will get a physical certificate in the mail, whether there is a way to take another certificate picture (I wasnt looking so great because I was sick) and/or revise other information, etc..
Above all, I think this service is going to be awesome for people who would like to take the exam at home and/or cannot afford the expense of other services. I hope youll especially advertise through universities where they help ESL students study for these exams (ie: Lehman College of The City University of New York offers classes to ESL students who are studying for the TOEFL). With a bit of tech tweaking within the app and some further clarification about who you guys are and what youre offering, I think lots of people will take advantage of using this app! I hope youll update the app with my comments in mind ASAP! :-)
MashaT22 about Duolingo English Test
